Lone Star - July Update

I dragged out the ironing board.

The folded flimsy came out of the closet.

I took a deep breath and pressed. Used lots of Best Press. Said a few curse words under my breath. Wrote practice blog posts in my head about this quilt top. The pictures are not pretty, but read on, if you must...

This pic was taken before pressing.

This is a different point, taken after pressing.

And here is Bursting Star, pressed, and spread out on the bed. Hmmm...she has a few issues, doesn't she?

Places like this are too plentiful. So I am pondering what to do. I think I will send a long email to the quilter I want to work on this, and get her input. She does this for a business, and has produced some beautiful quilts. She may have the expertise to control my out-of-control wonkiness. I will consider "unsewing" a few seams, but I don't think I am interested in a massive re-do.

I sound disappointed in my results, but truly, I think I am okay with a less than stellar result. I began this quilt over 20 years ago when I was much too inexperienced to tackle such a project. I think I knew when I shoved it in it's 20-year-bin that this would be the outcome. Back then, I wouldn't have known how to proceed. Today, older and wiser and more experienced, I am not freaking out that I've got an Ugly Duckling on my hands. Rather I am glad for all that I've learned over the years, and grateful for the opportunity to finish a UFO.

Enough about my Bursting Star! Let's focus on all the fabulous quilts that are coming together in our little quilt-along! Did you click on Sue's Mr. Linky entrants? Isn't it grand seeing these beautiful quilts? The diversity is worth noting, too. From the bluest blues to black and white to lovely reds and tans to an amazing yard sale find, we have come a long way since January! Good job, one and all!

June Lone Star Quilt Along, part 2

This just goes to show you that if you take 20.5 years to finish something, it CAN be done. With unpressed lumps and wrinkles, let me present my Bursting Star:

The evening (6pm) sun is shining in the window, washing out all color there on the right, but the rest shows up well enough. Yes, I know you are all looking at those lumps, wondering why I didn't take the time to press it and get it laid out nice and flat. Well, I will get to it! I was so worried that I wouldn't get THIS far today, and I'd made that my goal. So here she is, in all her unpressed glory.

Maybe I will save the gussied-up version for our July get-together.

Thanks to you gals who played along with us today. Thanks, especially, to Elizabeth for having a Tea Party for us, and making the day extra special. Look for Sue to host the festivities next month. I will show a more presentable version of my top, and hopefully will be reporting that it has been delivered to the quilter! Wouldn't that be grand??!! Oh excitement!!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

So Much To Report!

Seems like I post a lot, but after a long and busy Easter weekend, I have a full list of topics for blogging.
1. Sewing yesterday with Sharon.
2. A quick trip today to the quilt store.
3. Frankfort group get-together on Friday.
4. Getting all of Grandma's quilts posted.
5. A field trip this week to the big Quilt Show in Cincinnati.

I like making lists, so I will just follow this one. Today I will cover item #1.

Yesterday, Monday, I traveled to Chillicothe to sew at Sharon's house. I grabbed a long-ignored UFO: Mom's Birthday Signature quilt. My dilemma has been that I knew I did not have enough of the Fig Tree fabrics I wanted (Strawberry Farm and Mill Stone something-or-other). So I do what I always do when facing a dilemma: stew about it. Over the last 5 months, I have expended quite a lot of brain energy thinking about how to solve this problem.

Finally, I came to the conclusion that I would pull fabrics from my stash that mimicked the look of the 2 preferred lines in a complementary way. So I did, and it worked.

In my day with Sharon, I finished all the signature blocks. Next step: trimming to uniform size.

This is the stack I completed on Monday.

This stack was stitched about 5 months ago. Only the top 3 or 4 are trimmed.

It feels pretty darn good to be back to work on this, as I should have been finished with it by now. Mom's birthday was in early October, for heaven's sake! I would like to get the trimming done this week and then lay it out on the bed to see how I want to place the blocks. As it stands right now, I don't plan to use any sashing, but if the quilt looks like it ought to have it, then I will re-adjust my plans. The quilt will tell me what it needs, right?

Sharon is still plugging away on her bursting star blocks. She now has 5 finished. Are you still loving them? I sure am. (covet, covet)

While I was there yesterday, I realized that I'd forgotten to share a couple of things here on the blog from 2 weeks ago. Do you see some interesting yellow fabric peeking out from under the bursting stars? Well, it's a gorgeous piece of fabric that Sharon has had draped over a chair in the corner of her dining room. Inspiration for us as we stitch.

What an impact piece, right? I suppose she has 2 or 3 yards of this. It is truly a stunning piece of fabric. I have no idea what her plans are for it, and I'm not so sure she has any! But just looking at it is sufficiently satisfying, now isn't it??

Sharon also spread out a couple of her Grandmother's quilts. Since I have my own Grandma quilts on my mind, this seems a particularly timely.

Two quilts here - they go together nicely. Both hand-pieced and hand-quilted.

Unusual patterns, but this 2nd one definitely could be called a variation of a Snowball block.  Old quilts, especially when they belonged to a beloved grandmother are very, very special.

Lone Star Check-In

Good Saturday morning, Lone Star Quilters! It's the 4th month of 2012 already, and our first Saturday date with one another.

A quick aside: There are several places where you can read about the history of this little venture, as well as follow our progress. Do a search of Lone Star Quilt in the search widget there on the right hand side for posts on this blog. Then be sure to do the same thing on Quilt Sue's blog. That will give you a pretty complete picture of our journey.

Here's a linky for ease of viewing one another's progress. Remember, too, to check in with my partner in crime, Sue over at Quilt Times. She is making her Lone Star from the very start, while I am working on a Lone Star UFO.

Hi Sue!! How is your quilt coming along?? :-)



Let me share the progress I've made on my version of the Lone Star, one that's called a Bursting Star.

On Monday, I dragged out all the Lone Star materials and got to work. I still had some rays that needed to be put together.

I dreaded putting these together. I felt as though it was busy work, and I had a serious mindset against tackling it. However, these went together relatively fast, and after I was finished I truly wondered what I thought the big deal was. Isn't that always the way of it? That which we dread is really not a big deal once we just do it!

A few posts back, I alluded to some "unsewing" and I will admit, I did make some bone-headed boo-boos.

I sewed two starbursts together the wrong way. Here, with my trusty seam ripper, you see the point color (on the right) is green, and the color at the other end is blue. Well, the starbursts on this quilt are supposed to be the other way. Gahhh! I couldn't believe I'd made this mistake. Thankfully, I'd only done two sets and not all five!! That would have surely seen me throwing this back in the bin for another 20 years!! (This is already a 20-year-old UFO.)

A better picture of the incorrectly sewn starbursts.

The outer starbursts are supposed to have green at the bottom of the "burst" and blue at the points.

All "unsewing" has been finished. I have the starbursts all stitched correctly and have laid all the parts out on the guest bed to see about placement of the setting blocks and triangles. 

I realize this looks pretty rough, but the cat had walked around on it, and I was only just pinning parts together. I will do a proper, prettier picture of it on the bed when it's all one completely pieced top.

Sharon's Bursting Star

Oh, my, once I get back into the classroom, I just cannot make or find the time to blog. But no one grades me on this, so I will post when I can. Only one class this quarter, Tuesdays and Thursdays; a nice group of students for Freshman Comp. I hope we can all learn some things together.

On Monday, I did keep my weekly date with Sharon for some sewing at her house. If you recall, she was beginning a Bursting Star from a golden-oldie book.

She is using triangle papers to speed up the process and insure accuracy. I believe I said she had made 2 of these already - years ago. In hindsight, Sharon reports that she's made 3! One, in fact was on the wall right behind where we were sewing!

So here is a bit of the progress she made on the 4th Bursting Star. I am loving the toille, as I knew I would.

Won't it be gorgeous? Can't wait to see it come together. Another great thing about this particular pattern is that this block is huge - like maybe 12 or 15"! So only 12 blocks are needed, and so the top comes together fast. I will continue to post updates as Sharon pulls this together over the coming days/weeks.

I worked on a stash-busting project with leftover 2.5" strips of batiks. Stay tuned for pics - hopefully tomorrow!

Happy Quilting!